I doubt my tuppence had any effect, but following on from my bad section of the blog last week about self-harming competitions, how great to see that the Government is cracking down on child protection online and that Instagram is also taking action.

I can hark on about many things in modern life and some, almost acrimoniously, say I do and often! Kids are taught how to sleep and be happy… yes, although I’d have laughed at that concept before I read a book called, The Magic Power of Your Mind, back in my early twenties.

I’m a positive person but it taught me mindfulness techniques and the huge value of breathing exercises. I go to sleep quickly and deeply and whilst some folk might have thought me mad talking to myself as I went to sleep during the first three months, I am now programmed! It works.

This has all been part of Children’s Mental Health Week (4th to 10th Feb). You can hear my interviews on mental health in this blog section.

Another good…

And we learn from Spain that a woman took part in the finals of the Spanish ham-slicing championships last week. She didn’t win, but what a great thing it was for her to be there.

The Bad

In truth, I wonder if this qualifies for bad or should actually be mad! A review by NHS Improvement has concluded that better time management would mean being able to carry out 290,000 more operations a year. Having worked for a very large company for 10 years before becoming an SME, I have spent the last 45 years espousing the essential need to manage time. Nationalised industries and the government sector are dire at it. You’d go bust in the SME world if you behaved like them, and we provide 60% of the jobs in this country.Also…Apparently, foreigners are cheating in the ‘Life in the UK Test’, which is part of their application for UK citizenship. Criminal gangs are offering as much as £2,000 to provide the answers via a hidden earpiece. The BBC reports that one woman, an EU national, told them she decided to cheat after failing first-time around, saying she "felt so much panic" about her situation.Finally…Is this just bad, or is it mad… or is it both? Rolf Harris was found looking through the windows of a school.

The Mad

I’m all in favour of people spending their hard-earnt cash as they like, but even so, who’d pay £2,700 for a 76-year-old part-smoked cigar!? It was kept as a souvenir by a naval officer on board HMS Pembroke in 1943. Apparently, it was part-smoked by Sir Winston Churchill, but I’m not sure how it can be authenticated… DNA maybe?

The whole story shows great initiative and foresight and is wonderfully British!

Another mad…

Wayne Rooney drunk with another barmaid in the US after an all-night bender. He just wanted someone to talk to about something that wasn’t football-related… the barmaid is reported as saying!

Locked up for seven hours and arrested in front of her children… her crime, calling a transwoman a man on Twitter, and now there’s a court order to stop her doing that. I thought the police had better things to do and suspect they think so as well.

If they’ve received a complaint, then they obviously have to investigate it… but there’s something wrong somewhere!